At Memoori Research, we have just published our second report analyzing
the fast growing market for Energy Management Software in Smart
Buildings and together with its “sister” report which focused on
interfacing Smart Buildings with Smart Grid they confirm beyond any
shadow of doubt that together they will play the critical role in
reducing CO2 emissions from buildings in the 21st century low carbon
economy, whilst dramatically reducing operating cost.

Whilst presently BEMS and Enterprise Energy Management software operate
as separate businesses they will only deliver against customer value
propositions if they work together.

Today there are four different businesses that can and will play important
roles in managing energy and the environment in Smart Buildings. Of
these BEMS sits at the center and provides the control of the buildings
environment and delivers most of the data and information upon which
the EEM system provides an end-to-end solution for enterprise energy
management in the building.

The ESCO’s and System Integrators are crucial to delivering the
solution. ESCO’s because they can be both buyers and/or influence the
buying decision and provide the finance and energy supply. System
Integrators because they now have the skills to integrate the BEMS and
other technical services in buildings such as lighting and electrical
management systems and finally connect up to the EEM system.

The Roles & Relationships between BEMS, EEM & ESCO Suppliers

We have identified some 90 companies that offer software and systems to
control and manage energy consuming and energy generation equipment in
Smart Buildings and interface with load control and automatic demand
response between Smart Buildings and Smart Grid. In addition the list
includes BEMS suppliers that also deliver supervisory software packages
to manage their systems and these can include monitoring and analyzing
energy consumption. Whilst the list is not comprehensive it does
include most of the major suppliers to the world market.

The list breaks down five categories of software and systems products and
service suppliers. These include, BEMS suppliers, Business Enterprise
Cloud based Energy Management Software suppliers, Web Based Energy
Management Software (EMS) suppliers, Load Control & Demand Response
software and ESCO Service suppliers, particularly those that also
dominate the BEMS business.

BEMS Suppliers

Building Energy Management Systems (BEMS) suppliers manufacture DDC
building control systems, other titles given to this category include
BMS (Building Management Systems) and Automated Building Controls. The
list includes some 28 companies but excludes approximately another 10
companies that are wholly owned subsidiaries of Honeywell, Johnson
Controls, Schneider, Siemens and UTC that operate semi-independently.
These five companies take approximately 70% of the world’s BEMS product
market. They have dominated this business for the last two decades and
have large well-established heritage estates.

Further analysis shows the first four of these can offer solutions
in all five categories either through wholly owned subsidiaries or
active
partnerships. This puts them in a very strong position to take a very
significant share of all the software packages necessary to interface
BEMS with Smart Grid.

In addition the report analyses the acquisition that BEMS companies
have made in the EEM business which further illustrates that they are
expecting this market to become an important part of their business. In
particular Schneider Electric and Siemens have the technological skills
crossing the electro / mechanical and IT worlds that are required for
the Smart Building to Smart Grid interface business as it develops over
the next 20 years. They have majored in building technology and
electrical transmission and distribution systems for many decades and
have a strong global presence. In addition they have well-established
ESCO services. Honeywell and Johnson Controls have equal capacity and
capability to these companies in all these technologies other than
electrical network management control. The expertise, in so far as it
applies to Smart Building to Smart Grid interfaces, has recently been
acquired by them.

Much of the functionality of an EEM system can be delivered through
adding further functionality to the BEMS. For small and medium sized
buildings and real estates this is the most likely method they will
adopt. For large prestigious building and real estates having many
hundreds of buildings spread around the globe they need a comprehensive
EEM. The buyers will be major corporations, most multinational, and
Government and Public Sector building owners and most would expect EEM
to be delivered through IT orientated companies.

EEM Suppliers

We have identified some 39 suppliers of Enterprise Energy Management
Systems that can provide three different types of software packages
either separately or as a comprehensive package. The EEM Platform or
portal can be Cloud Based and / or a Web based and the Load Control
& Demand Response function can operate the building services only
and or interface with the Grid, but will interface Smart Grid when its
ADR capability is fully installed. The requirements of these packages
will depend upon what is already installed in the Smart Building; does
it have an advanced BEMS or a simple one, and does it include lighting
control and other energy consuming plant not controlled by the BEMS.

Of the 90 companies three software categories can be supplied by some 61
companies including 39 specialist software companies (EEM), mostly new
starts. Notable companies here include, ActiveLogix, C3, CA,
CarbonSystems, Elster Energy ICT, IBM Technologies, Pacific Controls,
Schneider Electric, and Tridium. Most of the companies in this group
have little experience of the Smart Building or Smart Grid businesses.
This does not prevent them from producing good solutions but they will
have to prove to building and estate owners and skeptical utility
businesses that they have the technical and financial expertise to
deliver robust solutions. Most of those that have got their products to
market have done so through partnering with BEMS Integrators or ESCO’s.

ESCO Suppliers

The last group, ESCO’s, will have a major influence in making Smart
Buildings interface with Smart Grid. 10 companies are listed here of
which six are major BEMS companies and are also the major ESCO’s in world
markets. In addition three are also major suppliers of electrical
transmission and distribution networks and three have recently acquired
third party energy supply companies. If this was not enough they can
bring together the benefits of Virtual Power Plants (VPP) through the
building estates that they manage. However it should be noted that
there are many thousands of small and medium sized ESCO’s in the
developed markets of the world.

Building Owners Will Determine the Future of the EEM Market

The initiative to drive EEM in Smart Building and interface with the
Smart Grid will need to come from the Smart Building owners, for in the
world’s developed markets the utility companies are pre-occupied by
their smart meter, AMI and long-term ADR programs.

Smart Building owners will require that EEM software will integrate
with BEMS and meters, interface with IT, Data Centers, Telecoms,
Lighting Controls, Primary energy and on-site generation. It will need
to feed in weather data, utility tariff rates, energy benchmark and
data on financial incentives and benchmark against new regulations and
mandates.

In addition customers will require supplier management account tracking
and energy procurement programs. This is only a part of the list of the
functionalities that will be required.

The software architecture must be scalable if it is to be purchased by
the retail, banking, educational and health sectors for they have many
hundreds of buildings spread across countries, regions and continents.
It’s not uncommon for real estate’s to have a 1000 or more large
buildings spread across countries and different continents and these
will require different user interface languages. Having past these
tests clients need to be satisfied that the supplier has the
organizational and financial resources in place and equally as
important does he have alliance and partnerships with capable System
Integrators.

The Supply Side Gears up to meet Demand

The supply side is gearing itself up to meet the challenges and the
world’s major electrical equipment manufacturers such as Siemens,
Schneider Electric, ABB and GE; and a host of relatively new specialist
companies are equipped to deliver solutions to meet the burgeoning need
operate Smart Building.

The BEMS and ESCO’s are in a strong position to take a big share of the
EEM market because they are in a trusted position already supplying
complimentary products and services and having a massive heritage
estate to exploit. In addition we have shown they have already acquired
EEM suppliers and therefore now have the skills to put total solutions
together. However for new construction projects we think that EEM
specialist companies are likely to be favored by the CIO’s of Smart
Building Estates and the major Electrical Utilities for Smart Grid
ADR projects.

Schneider has the technology in-house to meet these requirements for
most projects but they have recently signed a strategic technology
agreement with one of the world’s major software companies, OSIsoft.
OSIsoft will provide their PI System, a leading infrastructure
technology for the management of real-time data and events whilst
Schneider Electric, a global specialist in energy management will
provide innovative and comprehensive energy management solutions. The
joint solution combines Schneider Electric’s energy management and BEMS
expertise with the streaming data and event management capabilities of
OSIsoft’s PI System.

The four major BEMS and ESCO companies, Honeywell, Johnson Controls,
Schneider and Siemens hold a unique and powerful position to win EEM
business but will not be able to satisfy the needs of the major real
estate owners unless they take the action that Schneider Electric has
done and form alliances with those that can deliver the platform
infrastructure technology.

The major software companies are also in a strong position but at this
time lack the interface skills and more important contact with many of
the Smart Building owners. They could save themselves a lot of hassle
if they formed working relationships with the BEMS/ESCO companies or
their System Integrators. The market is in its infancy; now is the time
to get these strategic alliances in place.